Each seeker follows his own path; mine uses the Tarot as a focal point
and tool. As Pirsig says about geometry, it's not so much true
as it is advantageous.
In my experience and for my purposes the tarot is a set of
images for meditative focus. In the exoteric sense it's a visual
toolbox, an archetypal feast. In the esoteric sense the images
are also mnemonic devices that help structure our experience of hidden wisdom. From an analytical point of view,
the tarot might be a turbocharged set of Rorschach inkblots, or a tableau
of Jungian archetypes.
My first exposure
My first real exposure to tarot was in college in the late 80s.
My roommate Jason always had a pack with him and it was, of all things,
a great way for him to meet women. As dt
king might say, it was a "babe magnet". What was it Kierkegaard
said about teaching vis-a-vis seduction?
As I spent more time in research for graduate
school I found I enjoy decoding encoded text, whether architecture,
literature, art,
landscapes,
fountains,
encryption proper or tarot. It's all related, in
my view.
My current involvement
Associations:
I am a member of the Builders of the
Adytum, which teaches practical occultism via tarot and QBLH.
I also helped the American
Tarot Association get their mailing lists off the ground.
They have gravitated to Onelist
so I'm not involved with them directly so much any more.
I still active with the Tarot Prison ministry project penpals
I met through ATA.
Online discussions
Mailing lists While mail and news
communities may be more loosely-federated than actual
associations, they are still very important. The tarot-l mailing
list is incredible. You will get to rub elbows with such tarot
luminaries as Rachel Pollack, and Arnell Ando. I highly recommend
the list.
Newsgroups The alt.tarot
newsgroup is profoundly unhealthy and I cannot recommend
for you to read it. If you do need to venture in there,
get your killfile ready to roll; it is adulterated with the
pathological, the terminally unhappy, and the plain ol' fscked up.
The ratio of flamers to civil posters is about 10:1.
alt.tarot.friendly
exists mainly as an anti-newsgroup to alt.tarot, which is to say
flames are minimal, and the newbie ratio is higher. A.T.F. is
not widely propagated. Maybe a post/week if we are lucky.
Spreads I like to use
One card-for-the-day. :) About as simple and effective as it gets. I do my card for the day with Arnell's Transformational Tarot.